Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to usage control for a subscriber group.
Related Background Art
The following meanings for the abbreviations used in this specification apply:
3GPP 3rd generation partnership project
AF application function
BBERF bearer binding and event reporting function
CAN connectivity access network
DRA diameter routing agent
GW gateway
ID identity, identifier
IMSI international mobile subscriber identity
IP internet protocol
OCS online charging system
OFCS offline charging system
PCC policy and charging control
PCEF policy and charging enforcement function
PCRF policy and charging rules function
PDN packet data network
P-GW packet data network gateway
QoS quality of service
SPR subscription profile repository
TDF traffic detection function
TR technical report
UDR user data repository
UE user equipment
Usage monitoring can be applied to an accumulated usage of network resources on a per IP-CAN session and user basis. This capability is required for enforcing dynamic policy decisions based on the total network usage in real-time.
A PCRF that uses usage monitoring for making dynamic policy decisions sets and sends applicable thresholds to a PCEF or TDF for monitoring. The usage monitoring thresholds may be based e.g. on volume or on actively used time. The PCEF or TDF notifies the PCRF when a threshold is reached and reports the accumulated usage since the last report for usage monitoring.
The usage monitoring capability can be applied to an individual service data flow, a group of services data flows, or to all traffic of an IP-CAN session in the PCEF. Usage monitoring, if activated, is performed both for service data flows associated with predefined PCC rules and dynamic PCC rules, including rules with deferred activation and/or deactivation times while those rules are active.
A usage monitoring group, when only a single user/UE is concerned, is a set of service data flow(s)/application(s) of a user/UE that share a common traffic usage allowance and need to be monitored together for usage monitoring control purposes. Within a wider concept addressed in this document, a usage monitoring group comprises service data flows/applications of several users/UEs that share a common traffic usage allowance and need to be monitored together for usage monitoring control purposes.
If subscribers/users/UEs of a given usage monitoring group are in different PCRF domains, there will be a coordination problem between the involved PCRFs: Procedures have to be defined between the involved PCRFs to exchange information and to manage the usage monitoring control, either with a centralized or distributed way. Either way, centralized or distributed, the following further problems will occur:                Monitoring control information and reports of achieved threshold values should be dynamically exchanged between the involved PCRFs, meaning increased signaling traffic between the PCRFs and extra processing load in the PCRFs.        The more network entities there are in the information exchange and decision making chain, the more delay there will be between triggering events and policy enforcement actions.        